By entering into a sleepy, drowsy state, effort is reduced to a minimum.
The conscious mind is submerged to a great extent when in a sleepy
state. The reason for this is that the highest degree of outcropping of the
subconscious occurs prior to sleep and just after we awaken. In this state
the negative thoughts, which tend to neutralize your desire and so prevent acceptance by your subconscious mind, are no longer present.
Suppose you want to get rid of a destructive habit. Assume a comfortable
posture, relax your body, and be still. Get into a sleepy state, and in that
sleepy state, say quietly, over and over again as a lullaby, “I am com pletely free from this habit; harmony and peace of mind reign supreme.”
repeat the above slowly, quietly and lovingly for five or ten minutes, night
and morning. Each time you repeat the words the emotional value becomes greater. When the urge comes to repeat the negative habit, repeat
the above formula out loud to yourself. By this means you induce the subconscious to accept the idea and a healing follows.
In the Bible, Paul recommends that we make known our requests with
praise and thanksgiving. Some extraordinary results follow this simple
method of prayer. The thankful heart is always close to the creative forces
of the universe, causing countless blessings to flow toward it by the law of
reciprocal relationship, based on a cosmic law of action and reaction.
For instance, a father promises his son a car for graduation; the boy has
not yet received the car, but he is very thankful and happy, and is as joyous as though he had actually received the car. He knows his father will
fulfill his promise and he is full of gratitude and joy even though he has
not yet received the car, objectively speaking. He has, however, received
it with joy and thankfulness in his mind.
I shall illustrate how Mr Broke applied this technique with excellent results. He said, “Bills are piling up, I am out of work, I have three children
and no money. What shall I do?” Regularly every night and morning, for a
period of about three weeks, he repeated the words, “Thank you, Father,
for my wealth.” in a relaxed, peaceful manner until the feeling or mood of
thankfulness dominated his mind. He imagined he was addressing the infinite power and intelligence within him knowing, of course, that he could
not see the creative intelligence or infinite mind. He was seeing with the
inner eye of spiritual perception, realizing that his thought-image of
wealth was the first cause, relative to the money, position and food he
needed. His thought-feeling was the substance of wealth untrammeled by
antecedent conditions of any kind. By repeating, “Thank you, Father,” over
and over again, his mind and heart were lifted up to the point of acceptance, and when fear, thoughts of lack, poverty and distress came into his
mind, he would say, “Thank you, Father,” as often as necessary. He knew
that as he kept up the thankful attitude he would recondition his mind to
the idea of wealth, which is what happened.
The sequel to his prayer is very interesting. After praying in the abovementioned manner, he met a former employer of his on the street whom
he ha not seen for twenty years. The man offered him a very lucrative position and advanced him $500 on a temporary loan. Today, Mr Broke is
vice-president of the company for which he works. His recent remark to
me was, “I shall never forget the wonders of ‘Thank you, Father’ It has
worked wonders for me.”
The effectiveness of an affirmation is determined largely by your understanding of the truth and the meaning back of the words, “In praying use
not vain repetition.” Therefore, the power of your affirmation lies in the
intelligent application of definite and specific positives. For example, a boy
adds three and three and puts down seven on the blackboard. The teacher affirms with mathematical certainty that three and three are six; therefore, the boy changes his figures accordingly. The teacher’s statement did
not make three and three equal six because the latter was already a
mathematical truth. The mathematical truth caused the boy to rearrange
the figures on the blackboard. It is abnormal to be sick; it is normal to be
healthy. Health is the truth of your being. When you affirm health, harmony and peace for yourself or another, and when you realize these are universal principles of your own being, you will rearrange the negative patterns of your subconscious mind based on your faith and understanding of
that which you affirm.
The result of the affirmative process of prayer depends on your conforming to the principles of life, regardless of appearances. Consider for a moment that there is a principle of mathematics and none of error; there is a
principle of truth but none of dishonesty. There is a principle of intelligence but none of ignorance; there is a principle of harmony and none of
discord. There is a principle of health but none of disease, and there is a
principle of abundance but none of poverty.
The affirmative method was chose by the author for use on his sister who
was to be operated on for the removal of gallstones in a hospital in England. The condition described was based on the diagnosis of hospital tests
and the usual X ray procedures. She asked me to pray for her. We were
separated geographically about 6,500 miles, but there is no time or space
in the mind principle. Infinite mind or intelligence is present in its entirety
at every point simultaneously. I withdrew all thought from the contemplation of symptoms and from the corporeal personality altogether. I affirmed as follows: “This prayer is for my sister Catherine. She is relaxed
and at peace, poised, balanced, serene and calm. The healing intelligence
of her subconscious mind, which created her body, is now transforming
every cell, nerve, tissue, muscle and bone of her being according to the
perfect pattern of all organs lodged in her subconscious mind. Silently,
quietly, all distorted thought patters in her subconscious mind are removed and dissolved, and the vitality, wholeness and beauty of the life
principle are made manifest in every atom of her being. She is now open
and receptive to the healing currents which are flowing through her like a
river, restoring her to perfect health, harmony and peace. All distortions
and ugly images are now washed away by the infinite ocean of love and
peace flowing through her, and it is so.”
I affirmed the above several times a day and at the end of two weeks my sister had an examination, which showed a remarkable healing and the X
ray proved negative.
To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of mind
as true, regardless of all evidence to the contrary, you will receive an answer to your prayer. Your thought can only affirm, for even if you deny
something, you are actually affirming the presence of what you deny. Repeating an affirmation, knowing what you are saying and why you are
saying it, leads the mind to that state of consciousness where it accepts
that which you state as true. Keep on affirming the truths of life until you
get the subconscious reaction, which satisfies.
This method is just what the word implies. It stems from the procedure of
Dr Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Maine. Dr Quimby, a pioneer in mental
and spiritual healing, lived and practiced in Belfast, Maine, about one hundred years ago. A book called The Quimby Manuscripts, published in 1921
by Thomas Y Crowell company, New York City, and edited by Horatio
Dresser, is available in your library. This book gives newspaper accounts
of this man’s remarkable results in prayer treatment of the sick. Quimby
duplicated many of the healing miracles recorded in the Bible. In brief, the
argumentative method employed according to Quimby consists of spiritual
reasoning where you convince the patient and yourself that sickness is
due to his false belief,, groundless fears and negative patterns lodged in
his subconscious mind. You reason it out clearly in your mind and convince your patient that the disease or ailment is due only to a distorted,
twisted pattern of thought, which has taken form in the body. This wrong
belief in some external power and external causes has now externalized
itself as sickness, and can be changed by changing the thought patterns.
You explain to the sick person that the basis of all healing is a change of
belief. You also point out that the subconscious mind created the body
and all its organs; therefore, it knows how to heal it, can heal it and is doing so now as you speak. You argue in the courtroom of your mind that
the disease is a shadow of the mind based on disease-soaked, morbid
thought imagery. You continue to build up all the evident you can muster
on behalf of the healing power within, which created all the organs in the
first place, and which has a perfect pattern of every cell, nerve and tissue
within it. Then, you render a verdict in the courthouse of your mind in favor of yourself and your patient. You liberate the sick one by faith and
spiritual understanding. Your mental and spiritual evidence is overwhelming; there being but one mind, what you feel as true will be resurrected in
the experience of the patient. This procedure is essentially the argumentative method used by Dr Quimby of Maine form 1849 to 1869.
Many people throughout the world practice this form of prayer treatment with wonderful results. The person using the absolute method mentions
the name of the patient, such as John Jones, then quietly and silently
thinks of God and His qualities and attributes, such as, God is all bliss,
boundless love, Infinite Intelligence, all-powerful, boundless wisdom, absolute harmony, indescribable beauty and perfection. As he quietly thinks
along these lines he is lifted up in consciousness into a new spiritual wave
length, at which times he feels the infinite ocean of Bod’s love is now dissolving everything unlike itself in the mind and body of John Jones for
whom he is praying. He feels all the power and love of God are now focused on John Jones, and whatever is bothering or vexing him is now
completely neutralized in the presence of the infinite ocean of life and
love.
The absolute method of prayer might be likened to the sound wave or
sonic therapy recently shown by a distinguished physician in Los Angeles.
He has an ultra sound wave machine, which oscillates at a tremendous
speed and sends sound waves to any area of the body to which it is directed. These sound waves can be controlled, and he told me of achieving
remarkable results in dissolving arthritic, calcareous deposits as well as
the healing and removal of other disturbing conditions.
To the degree that we rise in consciousness by contemplating qualities
and attributes of God, do we generate spiritual electronic waves of harmony, health and peace. Many remarkable healings follow this technique
of prayer.
Dr Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, of whom we spoke previously in this chapter, used the absolute method in the latter years of his healing career. He
was really the father of psychosomatic medicine and the first psychoanalyst. He had the capacity to diagnose clairvoyantly the cause of the patient’s troubles, pains and aches.
The following is a condensed account of the healing of a cripple as recorded in Quimby’s Manuscript’s:
Quimby was called on to visit a woman who was lame, aged and bedridden. He states that her ailment was due to the fact that she was imprisoned by a creed so small and contracted that she could not stand upright
and move about. She was living in the tomb of fear and ignorance; furthermore, she was taking the Bible literally and it frightened her. “In this
tomb,” Quimby said, “was the presence and power of God trying to burst
the bands, break through the bonds and rise from the dead.” When she
would ask others for an explanation of some passage of the Bible, the answer would be a stone; then she would hunger for the bread of life. Dr
Quimby diagnosed her case as a mind cloudy and stagnated, due to excitation and fear, caused by the inability to see clearly the meaning of the passage of the Bible, which she had been reading. This showed itself in
the body by her heavy and sluggish feeling, which would terminate as
paralysis.
At this point Quimby asked her what was meant in the bible verses: Yet a
little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent me. Ye shall
seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.
John 7:33-34. She replied that it mean Jesus went to heaven. Quimby
what it really meant by telling her that being with her a little while meant
his explanation of her symptoms, feelings and their causes; i.e. he had
compassion and sympathy for her momentarily, but he could not remain
in that mental state. The next step was to go to Him that sent us which,
as Quimby pointed out, was the creative power of God in all of us.
Quimby immediately traveled in his mind and contemplated the divine
ideal; i.e. the vitality, intelligence, harmony and power of God functioning
in the sick person. This is hwy he said to the woman, “Therefore, where I
go you cannot come, for you are in your narrow, restricted belief, and I
am in health.” This prayer and explanation produced an instantaneous
sensation, and a change came over her mind. She walked without her
crutches! Quimby said it was one of the most singular of all his healings!
She was, as it were, dead to error, and to bring her to life or truth was to
raise her form the dead. Quimby quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her own Christ or health; this produced a powerful effect on her.
He also explained to her that the truth, which she accepted was the angel
or idea, which rolled away the stone of fear, ignorance and superstition,
thereby releasing the healing power of God, which made her whole.
Power goes into our word according to the feeling and faith behind it.
When we realize the power that moves the world is moving on our behalf
and is backing up our word, our confidence and assurance grow. You do
not try and add power to power; therefore, there must be no mental
striving, coercion, force or mental wrestling.
A young girl used the decree method on a young man who was constantly
phoning her, pressing her for dates and meeting her at her place of business; she found it very difficult to get rid of him. She decreed as follows:
“I release (man’s name) unto god. He is in the true place at all times. Ia
am free and he is free. I now decree that my words go forth into infinite
mind and it brings it to pass. It is so.” She said he vanished and she has
never seen him since, adding, “It was as though the ground swallowed
him up.”
Thou shall decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the
light shall shine upon thy ways. Job 22:28.
1. Be a mental engineer and use tried and proven techniques in building a
grander and greater life.
2. Your desire is your prayer. Picture the fulfillment of your desire now and
feel its reality and you will experience the joy of the answered prayer.
3. Desire to accomplish things the easy way with the sure aid of mental
science.
4. You can build radiant health, success and happiness by the thoughts
you think in the hidden studio of your mind.
5. Experiment scientifically until you personally prove that there is always
a direct response from the Infinite Intelligence of your subconscious mind
to your conscious thinking.
6. Feel the joy and restfulness in foreseeing the certain accomplishment
of your desire. Any mental picture which you have in your mind is the
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
7. A mental picture is worth a thousand words. Your subconscious will
bring to pass any picture held in the mind backed by faith.
8. Avoid all effort or mental coercion in prayer. Get into a sleepy, drowsy
state and lull yourself to sleep feeling and knowing that your prayer is answered.
9. Remember that the thankful hear is always close to the riches of the
universe.
10. To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of
mind as true, regardless of all evidence to the contrary, you will receive
an answer to your prayer.
11. Generate electronic waves of harmony, health and peace by thinking
of the love and the glory of God.
12. What you decree and feel as true will come to pass. Decree harmony,
health, peace and abundance.